In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

The Emergence of Trials (In the Light of Ḥadīth)

    Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Hasten to perform righteous deeds before the onset of trials. Trials will come like pieces of a dark night: a person will be a believer in the morning and a disbeliever by the evening, and a believer in the evening and a disbeliever by the morning. He will sell his religion in exchange for worldly goods.”
    (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim)

    Abū Bakrah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Indeed, trials will soon appear. Beware! Then more trials will appear. Beware! Then there will be a great trial in which the one who sits will be better than the one who stands, the one who stands will be better than the one who walks, and the one who walks will be better than the one who runs. When the trials occur, whoever has camels should go to his camels, whoever has sheep should go to his sheep, and whoever has land should go to his land.” A man asked: “O Messenger of Allah, what about the one who has neither camels, nor sheep, nor land?” He ﷺ said: “Let him strike the edge of his sword against a stone until it becomes blunt, and if he is able to escape from the place of trial, let him escape.” Then he ﷺ said: “O Allah, have I conveyed Your message?” He repeated this three times. A man asked: “O Messenger of Allah, if I am forced to join one of the two fighting groups and someone strikes me with his sword or an arrow comes and kills me, what will be the ruling regarding the killer?” He ﷺ said: “He will return bearing his own sins and your sins, and he will be among the people of the Fire.”
    (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim)

    Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Woe to the Arabs from an evil that has drawn near. Successful is the one who restrains his hand.”
    (Sunan Abī Dāwūd)

    Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated from the Prophet ﷺ that he said: “Before the Hour, there will be many trials like pieces of a dark night. In those trials, a person will be a believer in the morning and a disbeliever by the evening, and a believer in the evening and a disbeliever by the morning. The one who sits will be better than the one who stands, and the one who stands will be better than the one who walks. Break your bows, cut their strings, and strike your swords against stones. If someone attacks you, then be like the better of the two sons of Ādam.”
    (Sunan Abī Dāwūd)

From these narrations it becomes clear that the killer who unjustly kills an innocent person will bear the burden of the sins of the slain and will be among the people of the Fire. Yet today killing and bloodshed have become so widespread that people no longer reflect upon their ultimate end. The command to blunt the sword mentioned in these narrations refers to refraining from fighting fellow Muslims, not from fighting disbelievers. In the present time, under the pretext of sectarianism, for the sake of wealth, and in mutual disputes, Muslims are killing one another; in such a situation, the killer will bear the burden of the sins of the slain. And Allah knows best.

With this slide, the discussion under the theme of the Day of Resurrection has commenced; henceforth, the signs of the Hour and its events will, God willing, be presented in detail.